"EA Austin" Coming Soon?

Figured this would have been posted here by now.

Star Wars - The Old Republic is suffering from a shrinking subscriber base. An optional switch to F2P in autumn is supposed to turn things around. And in May, for the second time, several employees of Bioware Austin have been let go in a "restructuring effort". Another bad news could be that Bioware founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka might have left Bioware or could be in the process of leaving – possibly because of the limited success of the MMO that started as a challenger of WoW.

A trustworthy source has been told by an employee of Bioware Austin yesterday that neither Greg Zeschuk nor Ray Muzyka have been present at a Bioware Company Meeting in Austin, Texas, just a few days ago. The employee claimed that this has not been the case before at such a meeting. The six others members of Bioware Austin's leadership have been there. Also, Greg Zeschuk has not been seen for several weeks now, the Bioware Austin employee claims.

There are supposed to be internal rumours at Bioware Austin that Ray Muzyka (pictured left) and Greg Zeschuk have left Bioware. According to our source, some employees at Bioware Austin fear that the company will be transformed into EA Austin.

Please note that this news is a rumour without any official confirmation.

Personally I would not be surprised if Austin is split off from Edmonton and Montreal. BioWare took their shot and missed. Let them focus back on their single-player RPG's and let the folks left in Austin get on with it. Not sure why any employees there would be afraid of this happening though. the last couple rounds of layoffs shouldn't leave any doubt about who is calling the shots now.

Sir Robin, the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot.
Who had nearly fought the Dragon of Angnor.
Who had almost stood up to the vicious Chicken of Bristol.
And who had personally wet himself, at the Battle of Badon Hill.

Eh, that column seems to be based around claims, an unknown "employee" and rumors. EA is known for hiring teams for short term work and then getting rid of them afterwards. SWTOR is no different than most games developed with EA in the background. I guess we'll see as time goes on but I can't think that Zeschuk would leave Bioware.

Not sure about this, haven't seen/heard anything about it either so that doesn't help but who knows.

I would be stunned if the doctors have left EA. They still have money maker brands in Dragon Age and Mass Effect. I would not be surprised at all if the doctors are leaving BioWare Austin.

Sir Robin, the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot.
Who had nearly fought the Dragon of Angnor.
Who had almost stood up to the vicious Chicken of Bristol.
And who had personally wet himself, at the Battle of Badon Hill.

Honestly some of the mistakes in the game design are unforgivable so I have no issue with ppl getting fired. I do hope the person who came up with the idea that making excessive amounts of medicore side quests is the way to go has already been let go.

Eh, that column seems to be based around claims, an unknown "employee" and rumors.

Wouldn't be the first time we've seen "rumors" from an unknown employee. And it certainly wouldn't be the first time if said rumors happened to be true.

I have to admit, I've been a bit surprised at the lack of any official statement or even any appearances from the BioWare Docs, especially considering all the bigs news we've learned about with the future of SWTOR lately. Normally, something as big as the game going F2P would have been presented by one of the two, but instead, it seems as though Jeff Hickman has taken the reins on giving out the big news.

It's definitely fishy, regardless. And I can't help but wonder how much EA holds the Doctors accountable for the state of the game it is in today. BioWare isn't even it's own company anymore, being now presented as "a Label of EA".

I figure its a pretty safe bet that many in the upper management of EA are very unhappy with TOR's performance over the last six months. They probably thought that a KotOR MMO from BioWare was a "sure thing." However, whether they blame the doctors or not, Edmonton and Montreal still have a couple of hot single-player brands. So I expect EA's wrath to be pretty squarely aimed at Austin, no matter how much the doctors were or were not involved in TOR's design.

So splitting Austin away from Montreal and Edmonton? Sure. Just about completely outsourcing all of Austin's duties, and jobs by the by, to EA Shanghai? Absolutely. But having one or both of the doctors "decide" to quit? Doubtful. They already took their pound of upper management flesh by waving goodbye to Vogel and Walton left before TOR was even on the shelves. So a top dog or two in BioWare has already been ritually sacrificed.

Last edited by SirRobin; 2012-08-06 at 05:33 PM.

Sir Robin, the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot.
Who had nearly fought the Dragon of Angnor.
Who had almost stood up to the vicious Chicken of Bristol.
And who had personally wet himself, at the Battle of Badon Hill.

Well, if they're leaving the BioWare branding on Mythic, despite both Warhammer Online and the Wrath of Heroes thing both doing relatively poorly, I don't see why they'd pull it from Austin, which is doing decidedly better than BioWare Mythic.

If the rumor has any truth to it. I would actually expect both Austin and Redmond to get a BioWare-less title.

Sir Robin, the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot.
Who had nearly fought the Dragon of Angnor.
Who had almost stood up to the vicious Chicken of Bristol.
And who had personally wet himself, at the Battle of Badon Hill.

Yep, I have a source that says EA had them whacked, theyre swimming with the fishes. Even with all the problems that EA caused with this game, they still got whacked, especially because of EAs incompetence, got to blame someone. ;p

Well they were going to blame Walton, but he wised up and bailed out before TOR was even on the shelves. So instead they blamed Vogel deciding, that he's decided, to "pursue other opportunities." So the docs are probably safe.

Sir Robin, the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot.
Who had nearly fought the Dragon of Angnor.
Who had almost stood up to the vicious Chicken of Bristol.
And who had personally wet himself, at the Battle of Badon Hill.